Patient Stories
A Profile in Courage
Published December 2025
Scott DeBolt knows a thing or two about adversity.
He also knows a thing or two about resilience.
Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 7 ½, DeBolt has experienced a lifetime of discomfort. At 63, he’s undergone 50 joint replacement surgeries – often more than once per joint as the early replacements wore out. He deals with constant pain and relies on a bevy of medications to keep him going, even when some of those medications have caused more damage to his body. In early September, he suffered a heart attack due to both the treatments for his disease and the disease itself. Doctors warned him that his organs were beginning to fail.
Yet DeBolt tells his story with a smile on his face and an easy chuckle; remembering good times riding his motorcycle and a childhood when he loved to run. He calls himself lucky, sharing how he once won a motorcycle in a drawing and later won a car. DeBolt says he’s chosen to be “better not bitter” about his life. It’s an attitude that doesn’t go unnoticed. When he helped manage the Customer Service Department at the Ellsworth Air Force Base commissary from the mid-90s through 2010, people would sometimes ask him how he maintained such a positive attitude. He shrugs at the question. “It was the hand I was dealt,” he says. “You just live each day the best you can.”
It’s that attitude, DeBolt’s focus on living life to its fullest and his ability to rise above the pain to embrace each day, that leaves people like Rapid City orthopedic surgeon Mark Harlow in awe.
“Scott has known more hardship in his life than more than 10 people,” Dr. Harlow says. “Yet I’ve never heard him complain or feel sorry for himself. He is a profile in courage.”
It also inspires his sister, Cyd Paulson. The two, just one year apart in age, grew up together. While Paulson also had juvenile arthritis, her disease eventually went into remission at the age of 10. She’s watched her brother, who was not as lucky, lead a full and inspiring life despite his challenges. “I never ever saw you angry or mad,” she tells him during a visit in September. “You are amazing. I want you to know how amazing you are!”
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic condition that causes inflammation in the joints. It happens when the body’s immune system attacks it’s own body tissue by mistake. Those who suffer from RA have pain and swelling in the joints, but the disease can also affect the skin, lungs, eyes, heart and even blood vessels.
Today, there are medications that can keep RA in check, allowing sufferers to have long lives with less pain and fewer complications. Unfortunately, DeBolt was born before these medications were identified. Instead, he was treated with the treatments of the time – medications such as steroids, aspirin and opioids – drugs that help with the symptoms, but often wreak havoc on the body as a whole. DeBolt remembers doctors over the years giving his family dire predictions about his lifespan. Each time, he bucked the odds and today, he is proof that medicine is “not an exact science,” Harlow says.
DeBolt and Dr. Harlow first crossed paths in 1995 when DeBolt’s previous hip replacement required a surgical revision. Dr. Harlow was tapped to do the surgery. Many of DeBolt’s early treatments and surgeries were done at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. and at Rose Medical Center in Denver, Colo. As access to care improved through Monument Health and other local medical practices, DeBolt was able to stay “home” and still get the care he needed.
Over the years, Dr. Harlow operated on DeBolt numerous times, doing additional surgeries on previous joint replacements. Dr. Harlow explains that the early joint replacement devices weren’t as lasting as current equipment, often requiring revisions. RA also causes bone to erode or deteriorate more quickly, which requires more surgery.
Dr. Harlow says that DeBolt’s surgeries often presented “challenges” due to scar tissue from previous surgeries, persistent bone deterioration and DeBolt’s small stature. Yet, after each operation, DeBolt bounced back and returned to an active life.
Dr. Harlow recalls when he learned that DeBolt was still riding his beloved trike – a motorcycle that a family friend converted for him as his disease progressed. Dr. Harlow cautioned his patient against riding, warning him of the potential for catastrophic injury should he have an accident.
“I remember he said to me, ‘I know the risk but I intend to live my life,’” Dr. Harlow recalls. “I understood.” Dr. Harlow admired his patient more and more over the years as he watched DeBolt face a lifetime of challenges with grace, grit and humor.
The two men grew even closer during a medical crisis for both of them in 2007. Dr. Harlow had been admitted to the Monument Health Emergency Department and was being evaluated for heart issues when he learned that DeBolt was in a room next door. DeBolt had slipped and dislocated one of his hips, a hip that Dr. Harlow had operated on previously.
Dr. Harlow pulled the monitoring leads off his body and, pushing his IV pole, went next door to evaluate DeBolt. Eventually, Dr. Harlow climbed up on the hospital bed and, using a bed sheet, put the hip back into place.
Dr. Harlow returned to his room only to learn that his results indicated he was actively having a heart attack. “I guess they knew my devotion to my patients,” jokes Dr. Harlow, who was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in September for “advancing healthcare and uplifting underserved communities in South Dakota.”
Both Paulson and DeBolt smile at the memory and say that without the care from Dr. Harlow and the many other providers over the years, DeBolt would not have had the life he has. But to Dr. Harlow, DeBolt’s full and inspirational life has much more to do with his ability to stay positive in the face of incredible challenges.
“This is a man I have admired since the day I met him,” Dr. Harlow says. “Scott’s courage and grace are unparalleled in my opinion.”
DeBolt smiles at the praise. “I have a special place in my heart for Dr. Harlow, too,” he says before adding with a twinkle in his eye. “And a special place in my hips and knees.”